Reviewed by Guy Walsh
I love this album!
After what was the suicide companion of Electro-Shock Blues, E has finally cheered up! All the usual Eels trademarks are here, sarcasm, toe-tapping guitars and mellow keyboards, but this really is a feel-good album. E claims to have realised how good life is after the deaths of (just about) everyone he knew and it sure is evident here.
The opener, Grace Kelly Blues opens with a national-anthem type ditty, then bursts in to life with strum-happy guitars and the lyrics
It's a Motherf---er is the only step back towards Electro-Shock Blues on the album, E reflecting once again on the death of his Sister. "It's a motherf---er, getting through a Sunday/Talking to the walls/Just me again/But I won't ever be the same". I Like Birds is a stap at the middle-class while Something is Sacred is about the homeless, showing E has political views and is ready again to voice them in song.
Flyswatter is an interesting song, about what only Mr E knows. With an echoing beat and some eerie wailing in the background this is quite different to the rest of the album. Also appearing on the album are a couple of two-minute fills, Packing Blankets and Estate Sale. The Sound of Fear won't let E forget his past, and Tiger in my Tank roars out "When I grow up I'll be/An angry little whore/I'll give you all the finger/I'll sell you all what for"
A Daisy Through Concrete and Wooden Nickels are glimpses of daylight, while Jeannie's Diary touches on Susan's House type lyrics.
Mr E's Beautiful Blues is the former single that was played on every radio station all day, every day. No, sorry, that's SHOULD have been played on every radio station ever! Songs like this appear at regular intervals across all three albums, so much so that a Greatest Hits album would be absoloutely fantastic, particularly if you own no Eels albums.
I know E's lyrical content can be a bit heavy going sometimes, but on this album he's brought out his Poppy side and the result is a gourgeous, and emotionally touching album.